Compassion is the inner barrier to the inhumane. In Liverpool, two eleven-year-old boys abducted a two-year-old and murder him. This crime could have been avoided if passers-by who heard the child scream had intervened. Arno Gruen asserts that these passers-by placed themselves on the side of the ...

Preface by Gaetano Benedetti

The concept of autonomy, which does not mean power and superiority but full conformity of a human being to his feelings and needs, is an important factor of modern psychology. If this autonomy is lacking - more often the rule than the exception - ...

Much reflection by many disparate thinkers has been devoted to the complex issue of evil in the world, and psychologists have devised different theories to explain the destructiveness of man. But rarely has anyone dissected the causes with such rigorousness as Arno Gruen. He demonstrates how ...

16-year-old Flora is found by the lakeside, bleeding from multiple cuts. She claims to have no memory of what's happened to her. What's more, the different witness statements don't add up to any kind of coherent picture of events, leaving the police with no leads to follow.

Wanda can't believe what's happening! Dad's girlfriend Inge has finally given birth to a lovely baby boy, and Wanda is just getting used to the idea that she has a brother, when it turns out he's not the only one: it seems Mama's boyfriend, Bertfried, also has a son. His name is Wassily, he's ...

Luzie's father, Captain Tim Timm is unexpectedly hired by a shipping company that specialises in salvaging shipwrecks - and for Luzie that means summer holidays in the Caribbean! However it has to be said that life on board the Constantina is far from idyllic, as Elena Wagner, the company's ...

Maxi is in love. Totally crazy about the guy. And Patrick, of all people! Who thinks he's Casanova and has just stood her up for the third time in a row! But, this time, he's going to be sorry. Really, really sorry. She's going to make damn sure of that with the help of her best friend Mo. So ...

"This is just the worst thing that could have happened to me. It's utterly dire! New people are moving in next door. And that lot, of all people! I just can't believe it"

No, no! Wanda just can't believe it. This is decidedly too much! Fabian ...

Everything children really want to know about sex-and aren't afraid to ask

How much sex education do primary school children need? As much as they ask for, say the experts. And what exactly is it that children want to know? When teaching primary school classes about the human ...

A girl named Johnny

Early on, Joana Wolkenzin knows that she is different. She spends hours reading and learns song lyrics by heart. As she grows older, she falls in love with both boys and girls. In the No Man's Land of Western Pomerania in the 1990s, she gives herself a new name: ...

Jochen, Oliver, Bill - almost half of the human race is composed of men. They still set the tone for many issues, even though their facade started to crack a long time ago. Enough of a reason to look more closely. What facets characterize the other gender? With a woman's eyes, Johanna Adorján ...

What is freedom, are we born free or is freedom conveyed to us by others? Can it be taken away? Is freedom only an absence of fear and constraint or does it not rather imply the need to take part in the political and social discourse? Th is essay by Hannah Arendt was fi rst published in German by ...